


Stars and Scars

by pressdbtwnpages



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-17
Updated: 2011-12-17
Packaged: 2017-11-06 21:26:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/423405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pressdbtwnpages/pseuds/pressdbtwnpages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“New Caprica?” The man looks around, horror in his voice. “This is New Caprica?”</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars and Scars

**Author's Note:**

> Set pre-season 1 of Doctor Who and during the New Caprica arc of BSG. The title is a song by Matt Pond PA. Written for [](http://bloodygoodgirl.livejournal.com/profile)[**bloodygoodgirl**](http://bloodygoodgirl.livejournal.com/) for Advent 2011.

Kara doesn’t recognize the man walking through the settlement. His sad eyes and leather jacket single him out though, and he’s cleaner than most New Caprican settlers.

There’s something magnetic about the man. Something that keeps dragging Kara’s eyes back to him.

He notices and approaches her. Kara appreciates directness in a person.

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes once she’s within earshot of the man. “You must be new. I haven’t seen you around here.”

“Yes. I just got here,” he says cautiously. His accent reminds Kara of Baltar.

“Well let me be the first to welcome you to New Caprica.”

“New Caprica?” The man looks around, horror in his voice. “ _This_ is New Caprica?”

Amused at the stranger’s disdain for her new home, Kara snorts. “What were you expecting, skyrises?”

“No, no, of course not. It just, all looks so normal.”

“It is normal. Hard to get used to after so long up there,” Kara gestures to the sky, “but normal. I’m Kara, by the way.”

“The Doctor.”

She raises her eyebrows. “I didn’t know there were more doctors. I thought Cottle was it. Hey, my husband is coming down with something. Will you check him out?”

He hesitated. “I’m not really a medical doctor.”

“You really are like Baltar,” Kara chuckles and then notices the stricken expression on the Doctor’s face. “No matter, you should come anyway. We’ll feed you. Real vegetables and everything.”

“That’s alright. I should -”

Kara loops her arm around his. “Come on, Doc.”

*

The Doctor is a surprisingly good companion. He listens a lot, and is just as restless as Kara. He flat out refuses to run with her, but other than that, he’s a good substitute for Lee. Not that he’s a substitute for Lee. Not that Kara needs a substitute for Lee Adama or would even want one.

*

A few weeks after the Doctor arrives, he and Kara are half-heartedly watching a pyramid game when one of Kara’s ex-nuggets shouts “Starbuck!” and waves from across the square. Kara returns the gesture before turning back to the Doctor. He’s gone pale and that stricken look is back on his face.

“You’re Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace,” he whispers.

She’s confused and a little offended by the reaction. Her name and reputation are hardly a secret. “Yeah.”

“I wondered why I was here,” the Doctor says after a few moments of silence.

“Well, your options are here or,” Kara gestures up. “I get it.”

“No, that’s not. I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

“Oh?” Kara thinks she’s supposed to be offended, but she’s just curious.

“Come with me.”

The Doctor leads Kara far from the settlement and up into the foothills, where, hidden in a canyon, is a blue box about the size of a viper.

“Um, neat?” Kara offers.

The Doctor opens the door and gestures for Kara to step in.

Inside, the box is much, much larger. Kara looks back at the Doctor in horror. This isn’t Colonial technology. That means it’s...

“...Cylon,” Kara hisses, inching her way out of the unnatural box. “What do you want with me?”

The Doctor follows her back outside, holding his hands up in surrender. “No, Kara. You’ve got it wrong. I’m not human, that’s true, but I’m not a cylon. I’m a Time Lord. This box, my ship, it travels in space and time.”

He’s saying the things Kara wants to believe. She doesn’t want her new friend to turn out to be a cylon who has betrayed her. Something niggles in her brain.

“The Book of Pythia speaks of the lords of time. Friend of humanity.”

“Yes. Kara, I’m a friend, I swear it. And you’ve been a friend to me. You’ve given me hope when I had none. It means more than I can ever express to you. And now I have to go.”

Kara nods, looking longingly at the time-machine. She thinks of all the possibilities. The things she could change, the worlds she could save.

“I wish I could take you with me,” the Doctor tells her, eyes sad once more.

“Why can’t you?” Kara demands. She sounds like a child, but. But. “Take me to some galaxy free of evil robot overlords!”

The Doctor shakes his head and chuckles bitterly. “This is a fixed point in time, Kara. I shouldn’t have ever been here, but I needed,” he sighs. “A friend, I suppose. And now I have to leave before I change anything. I wish that I could change things.”

“What do you know?” Kara hisses.

“I’ve really got to go,” he turned away.

“Stop!” Kara orders desperately. “I know I’m special! I know I have a destiny. _Tell me what it is_.”

The Doctor reaches out to her. “I can’t. But I can tell you this, Kara Thrace: You won’t be forgotten. Some far distant day, your name will be on every street corner. You will be the symbol of civilization, as inescapable and inexorable as you are in life.”

Kara is stunned to feel tears spring to her eyes.

“You promise?” her voice breaks.

The Doctor wraps her in a hug. He makes her feel tiny and childlike, but safe.

“Live well, Kara Thrace.”

The door closed, and the blue box began to make a strange whirring noise, slowly dissolving in front of Kara’s eyes.

“...You too, Doctor.”


End file.
